Knowhow Consulting Case Study

Development of the Yes2work web site

Client

Yes2work Limited is a not-for-profit organisation that delivers a job brokering service to disabled people. Yes2work operates under the Government’s New Deal for the Disabled scheme in Durham, South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and in Northumberland (from April 2002).

Requirements

Yes2work wanted to maximise the availability of their services by making information about them available on an interactive web site. Yes2work appointed Knowhow Consulting as their preferred technology partner who were assigned with the design and development of their web site. The challenge was to design the web site so that it would be easily accessible by disabled people and particularly by people with visual impairments.

Solution

The yes2work web site (www.yes2work.org.uk) has been developed using Active Server Pages and HTML forms and has been hosted on an IIS web server. The yes2work services currently available on line include a dynamically updated list of vacancies that are exclusively available to yes2work clients and a collection of useful links to sites that provide careers guidance and services to disabled people. Knowhow Consulting have also developed an application that will allow yes2work staff to update the vacancies database hosted on a MS SQL server. The static side of the web site contains information about the ways in which yes2work can help disabled people achieve employment and employers recruit disabled people. The web site adheres to the W3C Accessibility Standard. In addition, its design has been driven by the findings of heuristic evaluations conducted by occupational psychologists, usability engineers and blind users who evaluated the site at several milestones of its development.

Results

The web site has proven to be an excellent way of communicating to disabled people the large and diversified number of ways yes2work can help them towards finding employment. A team of advisors with expertise on careers guidance are available to help customers who contact yes2work through the web site. Employers visiting the site can gain an understanding of the abilities of disabled people. They are encouraged to contact yes2work to receive help that will enable them realise adaptations at the workplace to accommodate disabled people's needs.

Future plans for the web site include the development of online self-assessment tools that will help disabled people explore their possibilities, a CV writing service and the ability for employers to post vacancies.

To learn how Knowhow Consulting can assist you to Contact Knowhow either by phone on +44 (0) 1483 776000 or +44 (0) 7974 255735, or by email using info@knowhowconsulting.co.uk